When James Kellas left England for Australia, he had to leave his drag-racing hobby at home. So he ordered a TW200 to use as a commuter bike, and tore it apart. He installed a fuel tank from an RD250 and added clip-ons, new wheels and a longer swingarm. (As you can see from the picture, James has a great eye for color too.) He also fitted a new seat, exhaust and air filter. The little 196cc thumper now has a good turn of speed. Last month it clocked 74 mph—that’s 119 kph—during the Australian Speed Week, setting a new national open class 250cc record at Lake Gairdner. Do you know any other commuter bikes that have broken national speed records?
Pentax *ist DL | f/5.6 | ISO 200 | Focal length 18mm
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5 Comments
My old RD200 went 72mph. After about 2 miles of laying on the tank. With a slight tailwind. It never looked quite as good as this bike does, that’s for sure.
I think a standard TW200 tops out at about 60 mph, so Kellas has got a 30% increase in top speed. Pretty good for a bike that hasn’t had a heavily reworked engine.
I’ll never understand why manufacturers never do limited production runs of bikes like this one. Just beautiful.
I met James and his bike at the Lovers’ Land exhibition party at Deus last night, and can confirm that the bike looks stunning in the metal!
Very nicely modded bike, looks great. I am currently tearing apart my 2005 model of the same, I am going the opposite direction tho, I’m adding more low end instead of the top end. When I bought it new it would do 125 kmh, and 130 kmh going down a hill. After a year or two I’m lucky to get 115 or 120 out of it, and it’s screaming at that point. With the increase in teeth for my front and rear sprocket I get about 100 kmh, but the front end will come off the ground in 2nd or 3rd with work. Either way, great looking bike and here’s to the thumpin’ little TW200. Cheers.